Not my typical post

I am blue today. I found out a classmate of mine died. Well he didn't just die he actually killed himself, which is even worse. He was 49 years old. He had two children, and I honestly don't know what else what going on his life. I went to high school with him. Paths crossed here and there but not often, he had a different life than I do and you lose touch. But it saddens me, as if there was something I could have done. There was this weird cryptic message in the memory book the paper puts out. It was about the nine of swords. I looked up the Tarot card for that and it was very dark. It saddens me that he took his life and it angers me that he did so leaving two children behind. I am pretty sad at the moment the anger portion is kind of on hold. I am somewhat numb from the shock of it.

Things I have learned

I learned how to do this. Now this may not excite you but for me its big....

I have wanted to do holiday avatars for a long time, oh say a year even and I finally did it. I have no experience with layers and such I just kind of guess. I looked up a holly graphic and I got the holly one and played with it, and then I found the candles and santa hat. So here is my final product. I have a holiday Ravatar. Yeah me.

What excites me?

First let me say this is G rated blog, so what excites me isn't exactly gonna knock off anyones socks. BUT if you knit, you may understand that of which I speak. I just learned the alternate cable cast on. This is EXCITING!!! I love Ravelry. I love the shared knowledge of the knitters there, I love the free patterns, I love the learning experience......... and learning a new knitting thing is just awesome. (mind you I still view myself as a knitting novice) I see these new knitters tackling projects that would blow my mind. But it isn't that I don't want to do these things, I view my knitting as a social thing, being tied down to an intricate pattern is not all that practical. I spend a lot of time with a cousin of mine. I do try to interact with her, and following a pattern closely would be difficult to say the least, and interact. (hey I can barely chew gum and walk).
Anyway the Alternate Cable Cast On rocks. Color me excited.

Color

I remember when television was black and white. Thank God those days are over. Life is full of color, and I enjoy it. But sometimes it can be confusing. Like in the selection of yarn for a project. Now my basic wardrobe is black, not goth just black. Mostly black pants. I do wear a sweater with color in it, mostly one color at a time. I am cautious about wearing florals... for instance. I am not a small woman, so I do not want to assault people with large flowers on my body or assault myself for that matter. OH and bye the way, who the hell makes the clothes for larger women. Some of that stuff is just freakin frightening. Exceedingly large butterflies on blouses, ummmm please give me a break. BIG FLOWERS, yikes..... yikes and more yikes.

So I go into the yarn store and yarn is arrayed in all its glory, beconning to me BUY ME BUY ME. BUT what color do I buy. Well in yarn it isn't black. I don't much care to knit black, its hard on the eyes. Hey what do you want, I am running fast toward 50 and damn I can't slow the clock down. Well I do like RED, GREEN, BLUE, I have even taken on Orange as a color. I know I Hated orange for years. Now its all good. Well perhaps not hunter orange, or criminal orange, but pumpkin, well thats a lovely shade.

Well the other thing that kind of blows my mind is sock yarn. I LOVE SOCK YARN. I love the colors, I love the texture and MOST OF THE TIME I love the way the person who dyed the yarn or the company that dyed the yarn did the arrangement of colors. There is always an exception to the rule. I bought a sock yarn from a company that makes lovely yarns, but the colors annoyed me together. I know I have issues. I knit, and thought well it will improve, I knit some more, it didn't. I hate the sock, I gave the sock to Barb who finished knitting it and its mate and sent it off as a donation. Gone from my sight, not even in my projects on Ravelry. Be gone sock that gave me the fidgets. Someone somewhere loves that sock I am sure. IT WASN't ME.

My Life

I did this post yesterday about Barb and I. Barb and I lived in the same house when were children, we are three years apart age wise. Our parents shared a house, we had the upstairs, and her family had the downstairs, and we didn't think there was anything weird about that at all. Of course it was the sixties, while the rest of the world was doing hippy dippy things we just shared a house and our grandmother lived seven houses down the street from us with our then batchelor Uncle Ralph. Barbs mom and my mom were sisters, unfortunately both are gone now. My mother lost in a baby boy in 1955, and Barb was born the year after. Her mother had a son and a daughter already, so she didn't really mind if my mother (I haven't appeared yet) kind of took over with Barb. I came around in 1959 and Barb and I were inseparable.. WE fought like cats and dogs, and I have issues to this day about Barbie dolls. Barb was always saving hers for her children , it really got on my nerves so I ummmm abused mine. Not to worry the kid down the street actually liked them better than I did and he secretly played with mine. Someone had to like them, so he did.

My mother passed away in 1967 which was of course horrible and a while later my father remarried and I moved away. Now I only moved a matter of blocks away. (this is Pittsburgh remember) we love our towns and boroughs and tend to stay put. I am again living in the house I moved to in 1969. The thing was, now that they had parted us , we only wanted to be together again. We have been close all this time. Barb and I have gone through phases, we did crochet, we did cross stitch, we did an assortment of things. So Ken her husband is right when he talks about the phases, however the knitting thing well I am afraid its more of an obsession than a phase. I happen to think it is okay, I mean look we could be drunks, we could be always looking for that next drink, instead we look for yarn.. When was the last time you heard of anyone causing a fatal accident from yarn fumes? No one runs a ribbon campaign against knitting and driving, (as it happens I am incapable of this I really do need to focus on knitting or driving) I do not combine the two. My worst offense may be looking at yarn purchases at red lights. Well again, Who does that hurt? Besides our habit creates lovely woolen things. In my case mostly socks, but I have hit a hurdle. I have become obsessed with creating a hat I can actually wear and not put on a teddy bear or an infant. So far its hats 4 Jane 0. I have made at least four hats , none of which I can wear. But that ends right now. I am knitting with size 10.75 addi turbos making a hat. (oh um part of the problem could be I don't gauge, and I don't really follow the advice of the pattern), Gee you mean that makes a difference....... Well I am starting again from scratch and designing this as I go. Hold me back so I don't decrease too soon...

So hopefully in a day or two I will claim success.

Sunday afternoon with Barb

My cousin and I chat almost daily. There are things to say. Of course my cousin is more of a sister than a cousin, and we both knit and we both knit socks. She has children and grandchildren I have cats. Her husband thinks the two of us are kooks, he is certain this knit thing is a phase, (secretly hoping it will pass) oh well, keep hoping. So it isn't as easy to get together as you would think, there is always something going on in her life and my life so a Sunday afternoon together is a thing to cherish. This Sunday the game plan was to put together an easy supper and have a knit session while we watched Dexter. She got showtime and has been holding off on watching him since I couldn't. I made a brisket she made eggplant parm and we got our chance. It was wonderful. We traded knitted scarves. I made brisket by putting it a glass dish and covering it with Heinz 57 steak sauce and water (the new stuff with Lee & Perrin in it) Yep the whole bottle. I made it the day before and it was pretty damn good. So we watched Dexter in the living room while her husband watched football. We did pause to eat and for a change Barb actually liked something I cooked. She liked the pattern of the scarf I made. The mistake rib and she liked the edges because I alway slip the first stitch. I learned that on a project and normally I do it on all project that have a straight edge unless the design required you do something else to the first stitch. She ripped back the scarf she had started and did it with the mistake rib stitch.


Okay a day later I am reading this ramble and damn just have the energy to make it make sense. So I am posting it as it is... with all its problems.... lol.